Album Reviews : Arsis – Starve For The Devil

For their first 3 albums, Arsis pushed the technical boundries of metal, yet managing to retain moments with strong hooks and catchy riffs. For their fourth record, ‘Starve for the Devil’, Arsis have focused heavily on the aforementioned hooks and riffs, yet slightly cut back on the more complex passages in favour of more conventional song-structures.

Don’t be confused though, while there is definitely a more straight-forward feel to the songs, guitarists James Malone and Nick Cordle fire off countless lightening quick solos and digit twisting riffs, while Malone’s throaty, Satyricon-style rasps are stronger than ever.

The songs themselves seem to have a much more, dare I say, fun feel. First single “Forced to Rock” and “Beyond Forlorn” boast riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on a early Children of Bodom or even an Ozzy Osbourne tune, and based upon the border-line corny lyrics, they’re taylor made for headbanging and screaming along to. Despite having a title that sounds worryingly like a Steven Seagal B-Movie, “Half-Past Corpse O’Clock” is drummer Michael Van Dyne’s finest moment on the album. The classic thrash vibe is taken up a notch or 10 by Van Dyne’s blistering blast beats and off time grooves, while “Closer To Cold” shows off the whole band’s talent, with it’s black metal style main-riff over-laying strong bass-guitar fills.

While obviously making an effort to create a more straight-ahead sound, a large amount of the songs unfortunately don’t possess huge hooks or memorable riffs – and in a lot of sections the album sort of seems to fly by without grabbing the listener’s.

A strong, if not un-even, release from Arsis that will more than likely see the addition of new fans… but possibly the departure of old ones. 6.5/10

Band: Arsis
Album: Starve For The Devil
Year: 2010
Genre: Melodic Death Metal/Thrash Metal
Origin: Virginia, USA
Label: Nuclear Blast/Riot! Entertainment
www.myspace.com/arsis

Track listing:

1. Forced To Rock
2. A March For The Sick
3. From Soulless To Shattered (Art In Dying)
4. Beyond Forlorn
5. The Ten Of Swords
6. Closer To Cold <- Reviewers Choice
7. Sick Perfection
8. Half Past Corpse O’Clock
9. Escape Artist
10. Sable Rising

Reviewed by Andrew Kapper